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Wednesday, 4 January 2012

I can't believe we made an oil rig

An oil rig - whatever next?! It was completely unexpected and I'm still laughing that we pulled it off. Cakey the Queen of Questions spotted a tub of vaseline on the table during breakfast that I was using to sooth my sore nose from a nasty cold. "What's that?" she asked. From the deep depths of my memory I told her how vaseline was first produced as a by-product on oil rigs. The oil rig workers used the unrefined version to sooth cuts and burns. I suggested we check my story on the computer as I wasn't sure if I had made the whole thing up. It turns out that I was right... first time for everything! During the internet search we came across photos of oil rigs and Cakey wanted to make one.

We made a list of all the things we needed to make an oil rig:

platform

legs for the platform

three boats

cottage for the workers

helipad

oil pump

First we made the pump out of pipe-cleaners, paddle pop sticks and pva glue. The sticks kept falling off the pipe-cleaners so I anchored them down with bulldog clips while the glue was drying.

Paddle pop sticks held in place with clips while drying

Next we found a box to make the platform and I scrounged up four cardboard rolls for the legs. I cut some tabs into the rolls and taped them to the platform – not exactly sturdy but they did the job.

We ran around the house looking for little boats (and a toilet roll holder for the third boat) and anchored them on the side of the platform with string and tape. Luckily we had a little 'house' box that we used as our workers' cottage. My favourite part was wrapping two little people in shiny foil paper for little raincoats. Cakey added the helipad by taping a piece of cardboard to one side. Last but not least we secured our oil pump to the platform by sliding the pipecleaners through a slit in the box. And then we played with it.

Our little worker in her raincoat

We love using recycled materials in our craft projects, for more recycled inspiration have a look at my Recycled Materials for Craft pinterest board.

If this is your first visit to At home with Ali – welcome. If you like it, you can follow along via email, RSS or facebook. You can also find me on Pinterest and Instagram. Cheers Ali

Considering that we use oil so much in our everyday life, it's great that you made a play scene to help your child better understand where oil comes from. I think all oil rigs should have a pink worker's cottage to brighten things up!

What an awesome mom you are. Seriously, way to go taking time to explore and answer your daughters questions. I have a very inquisitive 5 year old who would love it if I would follow your example. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness.

At the moment my eldest daughter is a bit scared of the hot glue gun, it didn't help that I accidentally burned myself and then her the last time we used it. It is going to be great when she can use it though, it works so much better.

Hi I'm Ali, a Mum to two gorgeous girls – Cakey (5) and Boo (3). My kids love paper, paint, glue, glitter, playdough, mud, sticky tape and anything that makes a big mess! I am a crafty type person too and together we love to make things. This blog deals with the activities we do to make the day more fun.Read more here